Yes, I'm steamed...letter to the editor yesterday

The other day I was fuming about a letter to the editor in our newspaper, The Telegraph Journal. It was by the president of Monsanto's canadian branch, extolling the 'virtues" of genetically modified crops, and how we should be breathlessly awaiting the gmo apple and pear that won't turn brown when cut. Since I prefer my fruit the way God designed it and am horrified at the idea of frankenfish, and the disappearence of non gmo seed diversity I get really steamed about this bio-meddling. Since Michael Taylor has worked alternately at the top of both Monsanto and the FDA it's little wonder there is no required independant safety testing for gmo products. Add to that monsanto's powerful lobbying against labeling requirements, we in north amerika are entire populations of guinea pigs. If you eat processed foods you are consuming gmo's in corn, soy, canola, sugar in sugar beets and the myriad of products made from them. Following is my response Letter to the Editor  yesterday, Telegraph Journal, Saint John, NB :


Lorne Hepworth, president of Croplife Canada, a branch of Monsanto, paints a fantasy picture of a biotech industry with a sordid history of putting profits ahead of health. This is the company that brought us dioxin and PCB's that now contaminate the far reaches of the earth.
Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, has documented 65 serious health risks from genetically modified (GM) products of all kinds. Among them:

* Offspring of rats fed GM soy showed a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth weights, and the inability to reproduce;
* Sterility or fertility problems among pigs and cows fed on GM corn reported worldwide;
* Fertility problems, abortions, premature births, and other serious health issues, including deaths, among buffaloes fed GM cottonseed products in India
* Allergies among British children went up 50 per cent with the introduction to Britain of GM soy;
* The advent of "superweeds" requires ever-increasing loads of the toxic herbicide, roundup, to be sprayed on GM crops. Peasant families routinely exposed to roundup sprayed on GM soy fields in Argentina are seeing a 25 per cent to 30 per cent increase in childhood cancers and birth defects.
*Six European countries have recognized the dangers and do not allow GM crops to be grown within their borders.
No one knows the full extent of what happens to the end product when you splice in new genes, and then eat that product for several generations.
Consumers seeking to avoid GM foods can download the Non-GMO Shopping Guide and look for the GMO Free Project label on store products. the website of The Institute for Responsible Technology is a good education  on the dangers of gmo's and for an in depth look at tremendous problems worldwide caused by Monsanto, watch "The world according to Monsanto", a documentary found on http://www.documentaryheaven.com/

And on a happier note, here are some lovely healthy non-gmo greens and herbs in my greenhouse this morning.